Category: Tutorials and Tips

In January we announced our plan to focus on teaching computer science with intention. We released a comprehensive set of Computer Science standards to aid schools looking to focus their instruction, as well as required a class to use Kodable. All of this so you can track what your students are learning. Today is the next phase of this transition!

New tools to teach CS with intention!

Pace your lessons and student content by grade

Not every computer science concept is appropriate for a kindergartener. They simply are not ready to learn about functions or object oriented programming. Fifth-grade students don’t need to spend 5 weeks learning about sequence, but do need a quick study of foundational concepts before learning object oriented programming.

Now, when you create a class in Kodable, you can assign a grade to it. This will automatically show you the appropriate pacing for your students. You’ll be able to see exactly what they should be learning and see the lesson plan to teach it. When your students are ready to move on to the next grade, simply change their grade level to modify the pacing.

Assign practice levels to your students

When teaching, it is crucial that your students are getting time to practice the skills covered in your most recent lesson. Including math equations, spelling practice, and reading new words. The same is true for computer science. Now, you’ll be able to assign students the practice levels that accompany your most recent lesson. When you assign levels, they will automatically appear on student devices. Students will be able to practice on any device using their class code, then Kodable will stop them from moving beyond what has been assigned. This gives you great control to make sure students are retaining the new concepts taught.

Monitor student progress learning important standards

Finally, the most exciting change in the coming update, is the ability to track what computer science standards students are learning. Our goal is to help you help your students learn to code. Now, you (and your administrator) can see exactly what they’re learning on their journey. Kodable will report their progress on the computer science standards associated with the lessons you’ve been teaching and the levels they’re completing.

When?? And what to expect in the coming months!

These features will be available to new Kodable educators starting this week! For existing educators, you’ll be able to migrate over the coming month. You’ll be able to easily sort all your classes and tell Kodable where to begin with lesson plans for each class. The migration tools will be released this week, and migration will take less than five minutes to complete. You will have one month to migrate your classes. If you do not migrate during the migration period, your Kodable account will be automatically converted to the new format.

Once you migrate your classes and set their grade, you’ll be able to assign levels to classes. This means they will only see the levels you’ve assigned them. This gives you complete control over their pacing and progress in Kodable. When you’re ready for them to move on to the next set of practice levels, simply assign them from your teacher dashboard.

This is the first of our gradual rollout of standards reporting. You’ll be getting more insights into what your kids are learning as we align Kodable to the computer science standards and begin to add assessment tools. These tools include more game based instruction aids, as well as formative and summative assessments. By the start of the 2017-2018 school year, you’ll know what computer science standards are being mastered, where students need more practice and Kodable will be able to give suggestions on how to review with them.

We’re thrilled to make teaching elementary computer science a smooth and enjoyable endeavor as well as adding legitimacy to the instruction the community of dedicated teachers have been working so hard to develop over the past several years.

More girls are not going to be encouraged to code just from a game. Without the instruction and encouragement of a teacher, students will self-select for computer science the same as before, and we will end up with the same demographically stunted, male dominated workforce we have now.

This apparently angered one of our readers, who accused us of being an “entire company is full of backwards leftists who are trying to encourage girls instead of boys.” He went on to articulate that a male-dominated workforce was not a problem. Even though this person has probably never even used our product, I saw this as an opportunity to really articulate our view on the gender gap in computer science. I have gone in to more detail below in the hopes that it can help others engaged in this unfortunate debate around the country and around the world:

Say you have an array of 100 strings, 49 of which are the letter “M” and 51 of which are the letter “F”. You need to write a program to grab 10 objects out of this array at random, ignoring the value of the string. You run this program, and every time you do it pulls 8 “M”s and 2 “F”s. You run it 50 times, and every time get the same results.

There’s one of two problems. Either

You wrote the program to intentionally discriminate against “F” (I hope not)

You have a bug in your code.

This is what’s happening in computer science right now. The population of the United States is 51% female, and the population in computer science is less than 20%. (1)

The “bug” in computer science can be seen by simply walking down the isle in any toy store in America. Boys are funneled to Legos and blocks, girls are funneled to rows of bright pink dolls. From the time we are born, children are expected to fit into gender and social norms.

Sayings like, “Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of,” and “Boys will be boys,” are a prime example of such. We expect boys and girls to fit into these roles defined by society, our parents, and our education. Until women entered the workforce, the roles were strict and quite defined.

Since the 1960’s, women’s workforce equality has been gradually increasing. Women made up 52% of the workforce in 2014. (2) However, we still have a long way to go. Women make 80 cents for every dollar a man makes (3), childcare is still a major issue for women in the workforce, and since 1984, the number of women learning about computer science and STEM has dropped.

In 1984, women accounted for 37% of CS undergraduates, while in 2011, they made up only 17%. Studies indicate our defined role for a computer scientist has caused much of this decline. Marketing messages depict men as owners of personal computers and gadgets. Girls are ALREADY being artificially encouraged NOT to code before they can make the choice themselves!

I’m fundamentally against targeting ANY group specifically, and I’ve taken great pains to make sure my company never does that. We regularly speak with both boys and girls to ensure Kodable is appealing to both of them. We were especially careful in the development of our upper elementary content, because this is when kids start to become aware of social norms and expectations. Not only does talking with kids help us bridge the gender gap, but they have awesome ideas like rainbow geysers and better, kid-friendly terminology for concepts.

I want to include EVERYONE in computer science. When we started Kodable, my co-founder Grechen Huebner and I looked around at what was available for kids to learn to code. She was not pleased with the selection for girls. Most of the tools and programs available we’re quite “boyish”. Games played into what we think appeals to boys through dark color pallets and a logical progression without much emphasis on narrative. Grechen and I set out to make something that would teach and engage all students.

Since the start of Kodable, we have received criticism for many things, including targeting boys or girls over the other. However, we’re thrilled that the gender percentages of Kodable users reflect the population of men and women. We have just over 50% female users. We’re still meeting our goal of teaching computer science in a way that appeals to both genders equally. The Kodable team includes 3 women and 2 men.

Equal access to quality education is something very near and dear to our team’s heart, and it will continue to shape the way we build and market our product.

All of this comes with the caveat that you actually believe that boys and girls are equally capable of becoming programmers. Because if you don’t, I honestly don’t want you using my product anyway.

A couple months ago, one of our longest-tenured Kodable users sent me an email for a student in her class. She wanted to learn more about computer science, problem solving, and startups, and had a few questions she wanted to ask me. I wanted to share my answers with the rest of the coding community in the hopes that they might help other young learners out there 🙂

Student Q: How do you use your programming skills to be a better problem solver?

Jon’s Answer: Programming is nothing more than a problem that you have to solve with code! When you program, you learn very quickly that the best way to solve a problem is to break things down into a series of smaller problems that are much easier to solve. The same is true for problems that you face in your everyday life. If your room is messy, its easiest just to get started by picking up one thing and putting it away than staring at the room trying to figure out how you’re going to clean up this huge mess!

Student Q: What steps do you follow when you are problem solving?

Jon’s Answer: When I program, I have to break everything down into a sequence of smaller tasks. That lets me think about the problem in smaller “chunks” instead of being overwhelmed by some huge programming project. After I’ve broken down the problem into a series of tasks I have to complete, then I just start with the first one! Every time I complete a task, I then stop and make sure that I did it correctly, and I’m still moving towards the goal I set out for myself when I started. After I’ve completed all of the tasks, I remember what my original goal was and make sure that it was accomplished.

Student Q: How does computational thinking help us understand our world and solve problems?

Jon’s Answer: I started learning how to program when I was 6, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, I learned to think of everything in terms of ‘if I do this, then that will happen’. This was so important! It helped me be more successful in everything I did, because I always thought about the effects of my actions before I did them. This helped everywhere from taking math tests to troubleshooting when my wifi wasn’t working. Also, computers are everywhere! Computers think computationally (obviously), and if you understand how they ‘think,’ it’ll be much easier or you to work with them.

Student Q: Which one of the problem solving steps is your favorite/ easy for you?

Jon’s Answer: I like breaking a big problem into smaller tasks. Its like a strategy! You get to take this big complicated problem and make it much more straightforward.

Student Q: Which step is your least favorite/ hardest for you?

Jon’s Answer: I enjoy completing tasks, so don’t always like stopping after every task and making sure that I’m moving towards the right goal – I just want to keep going! But this is very, very important. You can get so caught up in each task that you can end up moving in the complete wrong direction. Before you’ve noticed, you could have spent two or three hours working on the wrong problem, and thats never fun.

Student Q: Is feedback helpful when you are coming up with solutions?

Jon’s Answer: Of course! Its always helpful to get a second set of eyes on a problem you’re working on – especially if you’ve been working on it for a long time. You just want to make sure that you accurately explain the problem to whoever is giving you feedback, or they could give you the answer to a different problem!

Student Q: What do you do to plan/ prepare your solution to a problem?

Jon’s Answer: I try to map out everything I’m going to do in a set of easily completable tasks. It is very important not to make these tasks too big, you should find things that can be done relatively quickly. Then I order them so I know which tasks I need to complete first, second, and so on.

Student Q: What are some ways to reflect or evaluate when you solve a problem?

Jon’s Answer: You should always know what you were trying to do when you solve a problem. Ideally, this means that you clearly defined what ‘finished’ was before you even started solving the problem, that way you can easily determine if you accomplished your goal. Its also a good idea to look at your problem solving process and find areas you can improve next time. Did you spend too long in one area? Could you have skipped a step? Did you keep finding things to do that you hadn’t planned for? This kind of experience is incredibly valuable to becoming a better problem solver.

Student Q: Why do you think it is necessary to ask questions before you find a solution to the problem?

Jon’s Answer: Nobody knows everything, and even if you think you have all of the answers you might not! The only way to really know if you’re going about solving the problem correctly is if you ask questions. Sometimes there are details that you might have overlooked, or you might have misunderstood a part of the problem.

Student Q: Do you think that it is essential to follow a process when problem solving?

Jon’s Answer: Instead of a “process,” I think that it is essential to have a “problem-solving game plan.” I used to play football, and our coaches would always have a game plan before the game. One of the most important aspects of a game plan is that it needs to be flexible, because you can’t anticipate what’s going to happen during the game. Similarly, every problem you face is going to be different, so you should always have an idea of what kind of strategy you’re going to use when you problem solve, but be flexible enough to adapt it to individual situations.

Student Q: How did you come up with the idea for Kodable?

Jon’s Answer: I started to program when I was 6. This was awhile ago, long before there were so many kid-friendly resources available! My first computer used a text-based operating system called MS-DOS and didn’t even have a mouse. However, after a few years, I lost interest, and moved on to other things. When I got to college, I was able to teach myself how to program really easily because I had learned how to think like a programmer when I was so young. When I was working with my cofounder on another idea, we kept having parents tell us how they wanted to teach their kids how to program, but didn’t know how or where to start. We put two and two together, and came up with Kodable!

Student Q: How long did it take to make the whole company?

Jon’s Answer: My cofounder and I started working on Kodable in 2012, so we’ve been working on Kodable for a full 4 years now. Kodable’s birthday is actually the same as mine, October 20th.

When coding was first introduced a few years ago, a self-driven, easy to use game was necessary. It needed to be introduced in a quick way for teachers without any previous CS knowledge to be able to fit it into their lessons. However, over the past few years, things have changed. Over 350 MILLION people have written a ‘line of code’ and millions of teachers have seen the impact CS can have. Computer Science is the single most important topic being taught to the youth of the world today. So why isn’t it being taught consistently?

At Kodable, we have unprecedented influence on how computer science is being taught in schools. We have been used in over half of the elementary schools in the United States, and are the most widely used elementary programming curriculum in the world. Which is why it is so discouraging to hear so many teachers tell us that an hour of coding in December is enough or ‘We just let them play a couple free coding games, we didn’t really want to set up a class or teach a lesson.’ Playing a coding game without structured instruction completely misses so many of the benefits computer science education offers, and students are being failed in the process.

More girls are not going to be encouraged to code just from a game. Without the instruction and encouragement of a teacher, students will self-select for computer science the same as before, and we will end up with the same demographically stunted, male dominated workforce we have now.

So, we’ve decided to do something about it. Today, we’re taking a stand for Computer Science.

Laying the ground work for smarter CS Instruction

First, I’m proud to introduce one of the world’s first Elementary Computer Science Standards. Led by our own Head of Curriculum – Brie Gray, the K-12 CS Framework (2016) guided the writing and development process before the standards went through multiple reviews by Kodable’s Curriculum Advisory Board. The board consisted of a team of educators from Stanford, Teach for America, and school districts around the country, we believe this is the first step to teaching computer science the right way.

Following the S.M.A.R.T methodology (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based), these computer science standards provide a roadmap for educators to teach CS with measurable student outcomes. It is important to note that these standards are not specific to Kodable. While over the next few weeks, we will be revamping our entire product around these standards, educators are free to use any coding program they would like with these standards. The most important thing is always the student, and if Kodable does not fit with a certain school, we don’t want the student to be left out.

While there are some drafts currently available for K-12 that include a limited K-5 set of computer science standards, they are more of an outline or framework than comprehensive standards. The Elementary Computer Science Standards are by far the most comprehensive available, including a wide variety of concepts not addressed by others such as social emotional learning and communication skills. Our standards focus on developing the whole student, and really try to bring out all of the benefits that come with learning computer science, not just their ‘coding ability’.

Download your copy of the computer science standards

Focus on developing the whole student

Second, The Kodable K-5 Computer Science standards were written to provide teachers with a roadmap for developing the whole student through a computer science education. The strands within the standards are comprehensive and include elements beyond programming concepts (e.g., social emotional learning, programming impact, ESL). Our goal is to reach ALL students and see computer science become part of a complete elementary education.

It has always been our mission to make programming and computer science accessible to all students and educators. Since the beginning of Kodable, we have consistently heard how teaching students to code has brought about growth in many other areas. Students who normally didn’t engage with their peers began to open up and lead the class in programming. ESL students began to overcome tough language barriers through strengthened perseverance. Students struggling in math or testing improved their performance by practicing their problem solving skills in programming.

The Computer Science Standards focus on more than just programming and critical thinking because CS teaches more than just that. Computer science expands to all areas of learning, so you can now definitively say to your administrators that integrating computer science will help your students beyond just problem solving. Now you can tech with confidence knowing their growth can be measured, connected back to programming, and most importantly, leave a lasting impact.

What does this mean for Kodable?

Lastly, we will be requiring all teachers to create a Kodable account and set up their classes to use Kodable. It will also no longer be possible to use Kodable as just a game. Students simply will not achieve mastery in any standard without at least one off-screen lesson being taught, whether they are using Kodable or any other tool, and we feel our product should reflect that reality.

This decision was not made lightly. We understand how strapped for time teachers already are in the classroom, and will be making a number of improvements, such as QR code and picture based login, to preserve teachers’ already limited time. You can now be wholly focused on actual instruction, and not class setup or iPad management.

We know this will not work for everyone, and luckily there are plenty of other quick-start coding products that do not wish to adopt this type of structured learning environment; some programming education is always better than none! But again, the student is always the top priority for every educator, including ourselves, and we feel like this is the best way to create a structured environment that promotes actual student mastery of concepts, not just a fun game to play.

This is an exciting time for computer science, and for Kodable! Every educator we have given a ‘sneak peek’ at our computer science standards has been incredibly excited, and we know you will love them too. As eager as we are to get them to you, we are even more eager to hear your feedback! You can always reach us at our website – www.kodable.com, or by emailing support at support@kodable.com if you have any questions or concerns. We’re always here to help!

Back to school means old faces, new faces, and getting to know each other in a new classroom community. We know fostering collaboration and building an emotionally supportive environment positively impacts academic achievement and developing a community from the start is key.

Team building activities that promote critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving are a great way to kick off the year with your students and develop a strong sense of community that works together from day one. Traditional team builders like “The Human Knot” are great, but what if we could use coding and computer science concepts to get to know each other?

Here’s how:

In programming, variables store information in a program. The information is referred to as values, and can be either text or numbers. You can think of a variable like a container with a label that stores related items inside.

A string is a variable that stores values that are groups of characters, like a word or phrase. A great example of a string variable is a name: a name is a value that is used to identify a person.

Name Games:Back to school name games that help students get to know each other are a great opportunity to introduce string variables. Explain to students that they represent a variable and their name is a string that is a value associated with them. There are tons of name games out there, get creative and have fun!

A simple and silly name game that can get students thinking about string variables can be as basic as students going around a circle and choosing a word that goes with their name (their favorite food, sport, a rhyme, or a letter that matches the first letter in their name). For example, “Ashley Apples” or “Mike Bike”. Everyone says their own name and the names that came before to help get to know each other!

Integers are values that are written and stored as numbers. Integers are variables that store values just like strings, only the values are numbers and not words.

Paper Bag Share: Each student has a paper bag and labels the bag with a word or topic that describes something about them. The topic must relate to the student and needs to be something expressed in numbers. Get students thinking about things they have that will tell a little bit about them.

An example would be labeling the bag “Siblings” or “Pets”. Students would write on a piece of paper how many siblings or pets they have (0, 2, 4, etc.) and place the value inside the bag. You can have students choose any topic to represent a variable and have them place a related value inside.

Classes hold information about an object and allow us to create new, individual objects based on these details. A helpful way to explain classes and objects to students is to think of basic classification: grouping objects based on their similarities and differences.

Activities that allow students to explore their similarities and differences will help students understand classes and objects in programming while getting to know each other.

Properties are special types of variables that are attached to an object and describe it.

Students can think about themselves as an object and things that they have as properties. Any team building activities that allow students to describe themselves and each other will help students understand properties and objects in programming.

We’ve gone ahead and created a sample activity for you that will help students in grades 3-5 learn about variables and properties while engaging in back to school team building. Get it here:

Welcome back everyone! We chatted with teachers all over the United States during the first #KidsCanCode of the fall! Take a look at this week’s #KidsCanCode Chat, moderated by Kodable, to get tips from teachers who are teaching code in the upcoming school year.

Don’t forget to join us next Tuesday for our Back to School Webinar. Same time as the usual #KidsCanCode, but this time you get to ask the questions! RSVP here ->

An elementary classroom without clear procedures for daily routines means chaos. As you head back to school and get your classroom operating like a well-oiled machine, consider including some coding concepts to make it fun and frontload computer science lessons you’ll teach later in the year!

Every transition throughout the day requires clear, rehearsed routines that keep everyone safe and in an efficient learning environment. Procedures help us avoid wasting precious time, keep students on track, and allow for 30+ humans to function together in one room- a miraculous feat when you think about it.

Procedures require order, rules, and often silly names that direct students to perform a certain set of actions (think “Criss-Cross Applesauce,” “Put a bubble in,” etc.). These are all elements of programming concepts used in programs to direct a computer to carry out tasks- making them perfect examples of how we can relate programming to real life for our students.

We know that in programming, sequence is the order that commands are executed by a computer which allows us to carry out tasks that have multiple steps. In programming, we direct the computer to perform multiple steps in the correct order and it allows us to carry out a task.

In the classroom, students have to perform multi-step tasks as well, such as washing their hands, transitioning to lunch, or coming in from recess. Think about some routines that are specific to your classroom and how they are a sequence of steps put together: this is just like how a computer carries out tasks and will help students understand this process for computers.

In programming, conditions are basic “if, then” logic statements that modify how code is executed; making them a key part of the decision-making process for computers. Conditional statements are basic cause and effect: “If this, then that.”

In the classroom, students experience conditional statements daily as they follow classroom rules and guidelines (or break them!). Using conditional statements will help students think about and set classroom norms together, and make conditional statements easier to understand in programming down the road. Integrating conditional statements into classroom procedures will help students understand how stories can alter and the role programmers play in changing a computer program’s path.

In programming, a function is a named sequence of steps that can be reused and easily called on over and over again.

Classroom management strategies are a great example of a function: teaching students a sequence of steps and giving it a silly name that you can say without having to direct students through each step in the process, every time.

In the classroom, functions can be a lifesaver! Getting students to do a series of tasks in one motion by calling out a name can keep things in order and on task; which is what we all want for a productive learning environment.

Our mission has always been (and will always be!) making it as easy as possible to teach programming in elementary school. For us, this means equipping teachers with the knowledge and understanding needed to teach computer science, without adding to the heavy workload and demands teachers already face.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the kick-off of Kodable Academy! We’re bringing you teacher to teacher resources on foundational programming concepts. You’ll learn right alongside us, and feel good about the content you’re delivering to your students. Don’t worry, we’ve got you!

What it looks like

Kodable Academy is a video series of short mini lessons (less than 5 minutes) that teach you foundational programming concepts. Each video explains the programming concept, gives a real life example that makes it easy to understand (like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich), explains how the concept is actually applied in programming, and why it all matters. Technical jargon and abstract details? No thanks, let’s keep it simple!

Our first video teaches about Sequence, the most foundational concept in programming. The rest of the videos in the series build on Sequence, and follow the same “teaching” structure:

Who it’s for

You and everyone! Made by a teacher for other teachers, we want as many teachers as possible to feel confident taking on computer science. Our Kodable Academy resources are free and available to the public. You’ll also find it easy to access through Kodable’s Helpdesk, registered Kodable teacher or not. We believe everyone should have access to knowledge and we hope you’ll share!

What it means for you

You can feel confident teaching computer science to your students, whether you have a coding background or not! You’ll have a better understanding of the lessons you’re teaching and the tech tools you’re using in your classroom- from iPads to robots. Need to come back to a concept? No problem! You’ll always have a quick resource at your fingertips.

Teachers already do so much. In taking on computer science, we hope Kodable Academy will be a valuable learning tool that gets you just as excited as we are about the future of computer science!

Let us know what you think of Kodable Academy! Anything else you’d like us to cover? Leave it in the comments!

We had a great time chatting with teachers in our last #KidsCanCode of the summer! We talked all about implementing computer science, from past experience to piloting new programs! Read more for details and ideas.

This is the final piece of our 4 part series covering each stage of implementing computer science in elementary school, based on thousands of conversations with educators.

Full implementation- it’s go time! You’re ready to implement computer science in elementary schools when you’ve found a program that has proven benefits and met your goals. Testing the program out in the form of a pilot with a small sample group helps you analyze outcomes to better understand your long term goals. At this point you are ready to roll the program out on a school or district level and fully offer computer science to your students. HOORAY!

What Does Full Implementation Mean?

What is full implementation? Full implementation is the adoption of a new program or curriculum at a school-wide or district-wide level. This is what you’ve been building up to!

Who is involved? Administration, teachers (tech and general education), parents, and at times the Superintendent. This is an all-hands on deck situation; shiny and new! Everyone has a different role with varying degrees of involvement when full implementation is happening post-pilot. Expect the technology teacher, general classroom teachers, and administration to be on the “front lines.”

Logistics: You should already know how and where computer science fits into the daily schedule (for each class, grade, and the school) from testing the waters during the pilot stage. The progression of the program is clear. You have an actionable plan to meet goals and move students through the program successfully. Pilots are often free or less costly, but moving to full implementation almost always includes purchasing. Get our purchasing tips and helpful funding ideas and don’t forget to share pilot data with decision makers!

Goals, learning objectives, and data: Results (qualitative and quantitative data) from the pilot stage have been analyzed and goals have been clearly defined for a full rollout of the program. Objectives are clear and the entire team is prepared to collect data during the first few years of implementation. It’s important to note that full implementation takes time to evolve beyond year 1-set goals for years 1-5 and each year adjust the structure accordingly

Staff Involvement: Every school or district is different! However, across the board we see professional development as a key ingredient to success. Teachers need to be prepared and have access to any and all resources that will ease the transition. It can make or break the implementation process!

4 Tips for Fully Implementing Computer Science

1. Prepare the Team!

Implementing a new program of any kind requires getting everyone on the same page and feeling confident.

Make sure teachers have the knowledge they need through proper staff training, professional development (ongoing!) and resources to implement computer science.

Help general classroom teachers understand the program if computer science is going to be specific to technology class. Get them involved by inviting them to your classroom

Allow collaborative planning time for staff . This will help students have consistency across classes and classroom teachers to integrate computer science into math and ELA. Need collaborative planning ideas? Get them here!

2. Show, Don’t Tell

Don’t talk about it, show it! The pilot is going to be a key factor in showing the value of implementing computer science in classrooms and setting the tone for those getting started. You can talk about something great until you’re blue in the face (or your audience is falling asleep). The magic comes when people see and interpret the value on their own.

Have photos, data, and student work examples available for others to see (in the classroom, hallways, website). Read about one of our star teachers, Brian Adams, and how he shared the value of computer science with his students’ families!

Present to other teachers and parents at meetings or family nights. Older students can show their work, demonstrate how to use the program, and display what they’ve learned!

Create opportunities for new computer science teachers to watch others; specifically teachers who gained experience during the pilot stage.

3. Goals, Goals, Goals

Use the pilot experience to show the importance of goal-setting and help you set long-term goals. Model for other teachers how to set computer science goals and think beyond just one year.

What do you want students to be able to do?

How do you want to integrate computer science across content areas?

How do you want to see students apply what they’re learning?

What academic results are you looking for?

Thinking beyond one year will allow you to see big-picture goals and think about the ultimate, end goal you have for all students. The second half of setting a goal is keeping up with it! Successful implementation means monitoring your goals. Check in with teachers and students regularly and iterate if necessary.

4. Include Parents!

According to 90% of parents in the U.S., computer science education is something they want their kids to have as part of their schooling. More often than not, families want to be included and help in some way.

Not sure how to get parents involved? Here are some favorite ways our Kodable teachers have shared with us:

Communicate: Be transparent and equip parents with the knowledge needed to be a part of it! Send home letters from both teacher and student, share about your school implementing computer science on your school or class website, and give parents the opportunity to see it in action.

Homework: Send home information about the program and how students can practice at home. Homework can be fun!

Family coding night: Students act as teachers and show parents how to code! This can be exciting for everyone and really empowers students and gives them ownership.

Family conferences: Students lead the conference and talk about their progress, challenges, and successes. Teachers act as facilitators and students lead the conference.

Have you gone from piloting a computer science program to fully implementing in your school or district? We want to hear about it in the comments below!